I struggle with this a bit. Even if the book is 3.98 stars, i view that as not passing lowest bar. I consider most 4 stars books to not be there time, but rather the number of stars is how i filter out bad books
Also, how do you use your stars? Do you change your rating often?
For me, it generally goes like this:
- 1 Star -Either its so bad that its offense or i dnf it
- 2 Stars - Either bad or mediocre, not really work any time
- 3 Stars - An okay book with a couple of redeeming points
- 4 Stars - A great book with some flaws that bother me
- 5 Stars - An excellent book, i am jumping in my sits.
I’ll defend your choice to go by cover here, from the perspective of someone in marketing.
The cover is the first contact point anybody has with a book. It is there to let the prospective reader know things like genre, style, intended target audience, etc. A good cover should match the contents to your tastes. A bad cover doesn’t.
We form a large amount of our opinions on things from quite literally the first glance: people, food, vacuum cleaners, and yes, books. If the publisher has even a half-decent marketer on staff, that book cover should absolutely be intended for you to judge the contents before you first crack the book open.
I do also read the back to make sure its interesting but mostly I just have the mind that if someone spent the effort to write it then I might enjoy it. I can be very stuck in my niches if I dont introduce randomness into my choices.